Meatless Monday

For Meatless Monday, here is a favorite dish of mine that is simple and is a healthy veggie twist on traditional fried rice. Instead of using pork or chicken, this fried rice dish is packed with plant-based protein from organic black beans and edamame. I always stick with organic edamame because I know it's also GMO-free.

This is my kind of healthy fast food, and a new vegan favorite great for Meatless Monday! This dish takes about 5-minutes to make and no-cooking is involved except cutting up some tomato, avocado, and onion chunks, and micro-waving an 8.5oz bag of Organic Ready-to-heat Quinoa Brown Rice from Seeds of Change Foods. I bought a whole small case of the stuff at Costco.

Watermelon radishes are so pretty! The first of my three Watermelon radish salad creations is this Radish Carpaccio with two different watermelon radishes, and regular red radish sprinkled with chopped red onions and micro-greens I got at Trader Joe's.

I'm always game to try frozen veggie burgers because they are convenient and easy to make at home especially for a quick Meatless Monday meal. At Whole Foods the other day, I saw a packet of these Hilary's Eat Well Adzuki Bean Burger patties with green chili and cumin, and decide to try them.

What caught my attention right away is that Hilary's burger is vergan, gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free, yeast-free, nut-free, and is non-GMO Prject verified. Seriously, this sounded like my perfect burger. I was admittedly a little skeptical because minus all the usual suspects, veggie burgers can taste bland and have the texture of mushy saw dust.

Happily, this Adzuki Bean Burger is delicious. It's a new fave now! The cumin really does stand out but not obnoxiously so. I pan-fried my patty with a little olive oil, and then sauteed some red onions and cremini mushrooms. This patty is so easy to cook thatt in the cooking instructions they even include the toaster. No microwaving.

I melted some vegan Daiya Jalapeno Garlic Havarti wedge on top to make a cheeseburger, added a couple sweet pickle slices, and then rested everything on a bed of arugula. See, a vegan, gluten-free cheese burger can look good and be yummy!

When I lived in Phoenix, one of my favorite restaurants was Dr. Andrew Weil's Kitchen. The food there is amazing! They make healthy eating fun and sexy. I went so much I was the Foursquare mayor several times of the Scottsdale location.

One of True Food Kitchen's signature dishes is their Tuscan Kale Salad. Here is the recipe for their version which contains Pecorino or Asiago cheese and bread crumbs. I made a version at home of their Tuscan Kale Salad that is vegan AND gluten-free.

For the kale, I got a bag of Tader Joe's pre-cut Organic Lacinato Kale. Instead of dairy cheese, I shaved some of Daiya's vegan Jalapeno Garlic Havarti Wedge. In place of bread crumbs, I pulverized walnuts in a food processor until it had the texture of bread crumbs. The crushed walnuts added the same texture as bread crumbs but with more protein, and safe for those avoiding gluten.

This Tuscan Kale Salad is so delicious, you can easily eat this every day!

The folks who make Evolution Fresh juices have recently opened up a store in San Francisco where besides fresh juice you can get amazingly fresh and delicious healthy foods. We attended their opening party for a preview.

Here's one of my favorite dishes, and a great idea for Meatless Monday. Normally, this bowl comes with feta cheese, but to make it dairy-free and vegan, I asked the replace the cheese with snap peas.